[extropy-chat] On Gut Feelings

Robert Bradbury robert.bradbury at gmail.com
Sat Jan 14 22:14:40 UTC 2006


I agree with most of the points which have been said.  So *long* as there is
an extropic angle I am willing to listen to the argument.  If it involves
some attempt to rewrite history in attempting to advance a personal agenda
then I have problems with it and moderation may be useful.

That being said...

In line with the Harris Religion v. Reason argument -- it is open for
"extropic" debate because at least several worldwide religions *completely*
fail the "rationality" test.  The religions themselves are responsible for
*writing* the history which served their purposes.

In evaluating Stalin, Hitler, Hussein, etc. in ways relevant to the
Extropian list the question which  *should* be asked is whether or not their
actions resulted in a greater preservation of information.  I.e. *were*
their actions extropic?  If I thought about it for a while I think I could
make arguments that their actions were (Stalin and Hussein are much easier
than Hitler IMO).

Now, I strongly suspect that my making those arguments would primarily serve
to annoy some of the people on the list.  The arguments would also probably
not serve a particularly useful purpose moving forward since they are all
effectively "done deals".

A little bit of wisdom I learned long long ago which may be interesting to
consider in this context of *who* one allows to speak and/or *who* one
listens to...
  "Reality is a function of agreement.
   Agreement is a function of enrollment."

Having a fair amount of personal experience with it, I would suggest that
some Russian forms of enrollment are quite different from Western forms of
enrollment and unless you have had an opportunity and good reasons to try
and understand what is going on in the minds of the individuals making the
arguments it is difficult to accept some of the forms they may take.

On lists with large numbers of people with specific cultural extractions it
is presumably wise to tailor argument strategies to fit the audience.  This
is simple Marketing 101.  (However I always disliked marketing... :-;)

Robert
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